The following was written as part of a monthly inclusion and diversity newsletter the writer sends out monthly to his staff of 2,000 in Louisville, Ky.

My family and I have been visiting the Island for the past 30 years as a place to gather once a year and catch up. We even moved there full time for three years during our daughter’s middle school days to try out year-round life in the Northeast. And while known as a tony enclave for the rich and famous, that’s really a summer phenomenon when the population surges. So what does this have to do with inclusion and diversity? I am writing this on the Island while on vacation with my family so it is top of mind.

Martha’s Vineyard sits nine miles off the coast of Massachusetts and is 26 miles long by six miles wide. Not a very big place! It was settled by a Native American tribe called the Wampanoags who still call this place home and who hold a prominent place on the Island and in the town of Aquinnah. During the European migration the Island was settled first by white Protestants and then Portuguese. Their descendants still live on the Island as fishermen, landscapers, builders, chefs and business owners.

Recently, the Island has experienced a migration from Brazil and Eastern Europe mainly to staff the growing service industry. In the late 1800s following the abolition of slavery, many African Americans found a home on the Island in the town of Oak Bluffs, and like my family, as a place to gather and vacation in the summer months. Interestingly, Oak Bluffs was originally settled by Methodists as a Camp Meeting ground of tents that became small homes. Their descendants are still on the Island too. And the Island has a large deaf and physically disabled population who too originally came here in the summer for relief from the heat, with many deciding to stay.

When my family moved to the Island we were lovingly welcomed as washashores. That was to distinguish us from the natives but not to exclude us. The same moniker is used for the LGBTQ population that has settled there full time as Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same sex marriage. The Island is a place where celebrities and politicians feel comfortable and unbothered, where global tourists flock to experience the beauty of four seasons, forest and ocean. Artists and musicians, seniors and retirees all comfortably coexist on this small speck of sand of six towns.

What we love about this place is its diversity, its live and let live attitude, its welcoming spirit, its spirit of cooperation, all of which has come about because of all of the different people who have come to the Island and stayed. To me, inclusion and diversity comes about when everybody feels welcome. If it can happen on an Island in the Atlantic Ocean 26 miles long and six miles wide, why can’t it happen elsewhere?

Mike Bellissimo
West Tisbury